Makerspace Launch – Snowmageddon Edition!

Today was the soft-launch / founding members event for the Tech Valley Center of Gravity Makerspace (merging the Capital District Makerspace). The original plan was for me to fly back from Photonics West in San Francisco to Albany on Friday, but mother nature and the monkeys at US Airways had other ideas. Due to the grossly overblown forecast for the Capital District of NY, my flight reservations were cancelled and I was re-booked for Sunday. So I would not be able to attend the launch event.

However, we don’t give up that easily, and thanks to a home-built audio system made by Corbin, and the power of Skype, I was able to join virtually and say a few words anyway. The long and short of it is even though the weather was unpleasant, and publicity was word-of-mouth and guerilla marketing, we had over 120+ people show up for the founding event, and signed up 55+ new members (the final official tally will have to wait until I get back). Truly amazing!

The suspicion that there was tremendous pent-up demand for a Makerspace in the Capital District has now been confirmed, and now we have to rise to the challenge of meeting that demand. I’m excited to see how the community continues to grow, and looking forward to helping make it happen!